Gish Jen's Blog - Posts Tagged "a-writer-s-life"
Why I give everything 5 stars
I see all the reviews people write here and am touched. It is heartening and wonderful to see people involved with their books, talking back to them, sharing them. It's the magical, transformative culture I fell in love with as a girl -- a culture of utter candor, and one that I love, very much, still.
Yet so many of my friends are writers, now. And while most of them are way too busy to be checking on whether I read his or her book or how many stars I gave it, I know that there's always a chance that one or two of them will see it. And should even one of them see that I didn't like this last book as well as, say, the first book he or she wrote, I would die. I would die because I know how hard it is to write books, and because my job as a friend is to tell them what I really think if they ask, and when it's helpful. It's not to be supportive in person then pull the rug out from under them on a social media site.
So please forgive me, Goodreads readers. I won't post any books that are not finally worthy in some way, and that I wouldn't want to share, imperfect or not. As for those of you reading this who are both Goodreads readers and Goodreads authors, I'm with you and for you (and notice that some of you are wont to give everything 5 stars, too). Good luck!
Yet so many of my friends are writers, now. And while most of them are way too busy to be checking on whether I read his or her book or how many stars I gave it, I know that there's always a chance that one or two of them will see it. And should even one of them see that I didn't like this last book as well as, say, the first book he or she wrote, I would die. I would die because I know how hard it is to write books, and because my job as a friend is to tell them what I really think if they ask, and when it's helpful. It's not to be supportive in person then pull the rug out from under them on a social media site.
So please forgive me, Goodreads readers. I won't post any books that are not finally worthy in some way, and that I wouldn't want to share, imperfect or not. As for those of you reading this who are both Goodreads readers and Goodreads authors, I'm with you and for you (and notice that some of you are wont to give everything 5 stars, too). Good luck!
